gruesome, your excellent last post brought back all sorts of memories and frustrations for me.. reminding why I "walked the walk" and left Ron.
But back to the subject of the thread: is there anyone out there who doesn't believe that AAVN needs a "second tier", cheap to operate, simple to maintain in the field light helicopter to do the myriad mundane tasks it would be just plain stupid to employ a 54 million dollar very high tech airframe on?
While I accept the very valid arguments about the problems of yet another type in the ADF's rotary wing inventory, I just can't see the N-90, (and the Tiger, but let's not go there), in the limited numbers Australia will be able to afford both to buy and to operate**, providing even a small fraction of the air support that will be demanded of them.
**This, I believe, (cost), will be an increasingly important factor in Defence when you look at what's currently happening in the world, and if, like me, you don't believe this financail crisis will be short-lived.